


Reflection and Revelations

by green_wolf25



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, POV James Potter, Severus Snape Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_wolf25/pseuds/green_wolf25
Summary: James thinks of his feud with Snape so far and comes to a decision.
Kudos: 5





	Reflection and Revelations

Reflection and Revelations

James stared at himself in the mirror; he did not see anything wrong with his appearance but the deeper he looked into his hazel eyes he felt a sense of dread filling his stomach. He honestly taught he and his friends were playing innocents pranks that gave everyone a laugh but the look on Snape's face was not one he would forget. Sure he tried to tell himself that it was justified, that the sneaky snake deserved it for all the underhanded activities him and his fellow friends engaged in, targeting innocent classmates with borderline dark hexes and curses (some of which the git himself invented) but with hindsight James realizes that he lowered himself to their level, somewhere he never wanted to be and acted just as deplorable as his Slytherin counterpart.  
In some sense James knew that Sirius, Remus, Peter and himself should not solely shoulder the blame for the events that occurred during their time at Hogwarts. He taught that the professors of the school should have recognized the signs of bullying displayed by the Slytherin group and should of kept a closer eye on the events that happened in between classes ( honestly what are all the painting around the castle there for, if not to help monitor students and report dangerous situations occurring). Yet despite this, professors regularly turned a blind eye on all the mysterious curses and hexes happening to students form three of the four houses in direct conflict with the house of snakes and especially by a certain group of pit vipers. They also ignored any complaints from students, dismissing it as unsubstantiated and inter-house rivalry, refusing to dig into it any further. Nevertheless, he and his friend juvenile pranks of changing hair colour or making everyone sing their words at breakfast among other things were treated as a capital offence, in which McGonagall did not rest until she found the culprits and they were punish accordingly.  
Another person that ought to shoulder some of the blame is Snape himself. Yes, the rumours had reached him about Snape's home life (nothing was a secret in Hogwarts) form Sirius that caught the rumour from his despicable family, however, James did not see this as an excuse for Snape to act the way he does and he definitely should not be given special treatment for it seeing as Sirius comes from a family that abuses him too and no one takes this into account when punishing him for his part in their pranks. The truth of the matter is that Sirius has to work twice as hard for people to see past his family name, to see the loyal friend that he is. Thus James concludes that although he and his friends did in fact play their part in the feud with Snape and his friends they did so mostly to defend themselves and their friends who all were targeted by the Slytherin group, who waited for deserted hallways and unsupervised classrooms to attack others, while James retaliated in the open, not seeing the need to hide and take the coward's way out. This however, has dawned on him that it did not make him and his friends right either or in any way justified in their actions and has caused a larger problem with the situation that occurred last term, where things were said to friends that can't be taken back and lines were drawn in the sand going beyond childish fighting.  
James shook his head to snap himself out of his thoughts and focus on the present, putting on his glasses he looked to his Hogwarts booklist for seventh year and the shining gold badge of the head boy that came with it and decided that the coming year was a year to change and be better not just for his friends and lily but himself most importantly. There was a war coming and he intended to do what he could to protect everyone he cared about in any capacity he could. James would do better, be better and leave the rest in the past, it was time to look to the future and with a determined glint in his eyes, James turned from the mirror, strode out his room to join his family at the breakfast table ready to face a new day.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic to this site. I wrote this as a loose take on James Potter's perspective for his change in year seven of Hogwarts. I always found him an interesting character and sometimes felt that he was not given the credit he deserved. To me I felt that it showed so much character to change for the better as he did, so this is one of my contributions to this fandom to add my two cents into the pool. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope to add more works in the future.


End file.
